Times OL: DK stretches herself impressively on her new DVD

[Bud]

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 96,00.html

December 03, 2004

Jazz
Clive Davis
Diana Krall stretches herself impressively on her new DVD
A COUPLE of years ago it looked as if Diana Krall might become a captive of the glamour-puss industry: all those glutinous MOR string arrangements threatened to distract everyone’s attention from the fact that she is a terrific musician.

Fortunately, the Canadian singer-pianist — now married to Elvis Costello — managed to catch her audience off-balance with her last album, The Girl in the Other Room. It may have been overly self-conscious in places but it was clearly the work of an artist intent on taking risks.

There’s exactly the same aura on her classy new DVD, Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival (Universal). Schmaltzier fans who want only wall-to-wall ballads may feel short-changed; the rest of us can savour the spectacle of a performer stretching out into the unknown. (Oscar Peterson supplies a testimonial in the liner notes, just in case there are any jazzers out there who still aren’t convinced.)

Artfully shot with the kind of multicamera set-up normally reserved for rock stars or chariot races in Ben-Hur, the footage captures Krall’s rare ability to turn even the biggest concert hall into an intimate club. What makes that achievement all the more extraordinary is that her stage manner has nothing of the diva about it; in some ways she is the most uncharismatic of any singer I have seen.

There are no concessions to the easy-listening crowd, either; in the opening romp on Sometimes I Just Freak Out, on guitar Anthony Wilson and the veteran drummer Pete Erskine both kick up the dust. The songs co-written with Costello are still a little too angular and wordy for their own good — perhaps you really do have to be a Costello fan to get the most out of them. (Narrow Daylight, incidentally, is repeated in MTV video form on a bonus track.)

Still, there’s a magnificently sardonic air to the cover of Mose Allison’s Stop This World and some thumping blues piano on Love Me Like a Man. If you missed the recent Albert Hall shows, this is your chance to catch up with a singer who has become an intriguing work-in-progress.